That's important because a ton of business data is stored in brains, rather than hard drives. Estimates are that anywhere from 50 percent to 80 percent of a company's institutional knowledge is inside of its employees' heads..

Microsoft's technology tries to ease that task by looking through workers' e-mail and other data and then automatically generating working profiles.

The software also takes a page from social networking sites in the way that workers get matched up with in-house experts. The software can see if the information seeker and expert have any worker friends in common who might be able to make an introduction."

Technorati now tracks over 35.3 Million blogs The blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day 19.4 million bloggers (55%) are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created Technorati tracks about 1.2 Million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour "

Monday, March 27, 2006

For Seo Pros: What Cart Do You Prefer? -> High Rankings� Search Engine Optimization Forum

For Seo Pros: What Cart Do You Prefer? -> High Rankings� Search Engine Optimization Forum: calebw posts"SEO for shopping carts, or any other sites, is much more about building a holistic site that ranks well.......found the be the key things a good online store needs. Incidentally, I've yet to find an off-the-shelf solution that has all of these features built in and ready to use. The closest one is ZenCart, but it still has some issues that will require custom programming to get around"

SEO Shopping Cart Reviews

Affiliate marketers clickkbank help

You know how hard it is to search and find specific affiliate programs on clickbank, this site lists all new addititions daily...Net Entrepreneur Scores Own Goal with Competition: "David Thomas, a web publisher based in Cardiff, UK, has just launched the world's first free service that offers people the information they need to market new products sold through payment processor ClickBank. Each report includes information vital to the success of marketing campaigns. The information is produced automatically by analysing data from the ClickBank website, and can be seen in a daily post on his website http://www.theaffiliatemarketer.net in the ClickBank News category."

Using the Power of Many to Fight Spam

Steve Rubel posts about new anti spam site: Micro Persuasion: Using the Power of Many to Fight Spam: "Blue Frog is adding a new twist to the war on spam by aggregating users into a community of passive aggressive activists. They aggregate complaints from their users and then, working as their advocate, post complaints on the sites of the spam advertisers. Additionally, they send reports to ISPs, domain registrars and law enforcement agencies."

He replies"I would have skipped on the double slash - there's no need for it. Also I would have put the domain name in the reverse order - in order of size."

He states that "The Google algorithm was a significant development."

Asked: "How does the ICANN ownership issue affect the Web?" He answers "The Domain Name Server (DNS) is the Achilles heel of the Web."

Most interesting to me is the following on semantics: "Ian Horrocks spoke to the BCS on ontologies, the application of which would clearly see a true Semantic Web, but how can we apply these principles to the billions of existing Web pages?

Don't. Web pages are designed for people. For the Semantic Web we need to look at existing databases and the data in them.

To make this information useful semantically requires a sequence of events:

1. Do a model of what's in the database - which would give you an ontology you could work out on the back of an envelope; 2. Find out who else uses those terms and cherry pick them for your ontology; 3. Write a schema (perhaps with OWL (the Web ontology language); 4. Write down how your database connects to those things.

Using this information you can set up a Web server that runs resource description framework (RDF). A larger database could support queries.

To make all this really useful it's important that products have URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) - for example, products@RDF#hairdryers - so invoices, shipping notes, product specifications and so on can use it.

These would all be virtual RDF files - the server would generate them on the fly and it would all be available on the Semantic Web. Then an individual could compare products directly by their specifications, weight and delivery charges, price and so on, in a way that HTML won't allow."

Brian Eno gave a speech a few years ago on generative music - he said that he likes the economy of it, that just from a few simple rules complex and fascinating things can arise. How good an analogy for the rise of the Web from a relatively simple approach - hypertext and links - is this?

This is where Web engineering, physics, Web science and philosophical engineering meet. Physics was actually called experimental philosophy at Oxford.

The Web is now philosophical engineering. Physics and the Web are both about the relationship between the small and the large....So we could say we want the Web to reflect a vision of the world where everything is done democratically, where we have an informed electorate and accountable officials. To do that we get computers to talk with each other in such a way as to promote that ideal....

Berners-Lee concludes: "Web development is at a multi-way crossroads. There are a huge number of developments that are potentially world changing and there's a lot of excitement.... Going back to the idea of anything I would change, I remember Dan Connolly - who really understood SGML - asking me if HTML was SGML. I really wanted the SGML people on board so I said yes.

I should have said no - and we would have developed XML a lot sooner. This all happened at the beginning of the Web, in a pub in Edinburgh. This May there'll be discussions in pubs in Edinburgh again, where we can talk about what we’ll need to change now - it'll be a blast."

Vaguely interesting Slashdot discussion re above British Computer Society interview with Tim Berners-Lee though it focuses on domain names to the detriment of semantic web etc...Slashdot | Tim Berners-Lee on the Web: "Tim Berners-Lee on the Web "

Friday, March 24, 2006

Googlespawn - Forbes.com

Googlespawn - Forbes.com: "Silicon Valley is abuzz again with firms such as Kaboodle, Kosmix, Become.com, Wink, Digg and Browster. These goofily named Web newbies are being nourished by Google, often compete with Google ...

.."Google created a marketplace that allows new sites like us to get started," says Michael Tanne, founder of the Web search service Wink. He doesn't have to pay salesmen and instead can use the cash to improve his search technology.

"The motto of the bubble was get big fast. The rule today is get big cheap," says David Cowan of Bessemer Ventures

If the last bubble taught Valley denizens anything, it may be the wisdom to take the money and run--even if it's only a million or so. Slaving it out for the big bucks is very 20th century. "

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

How big business barged in on the bloggers

V V interesting factoid at the end of this article MediaGuardian.co.uk | Media | How big business barged in on the bloggers: "as a workplace blogger, Scoble can count himself lucky: the Metropolitan police were banned from 'expressing views and opinions damaging to the organisation.' As police blogger Bow Street Runner writes: 'These blogs reveal what actually goes on behind the glossy, PR-friendly corporate image put across by most forces, and threatens to actually inform the public as to what police officers do.'

A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism showed that on any given day, posts involving a blogger interviewing someone else accounted for only 1% of the blogosphere. Only 5% involved some other original work."

Bill Gates predicts the future...of advertising

Independent Online Edition > Media: "When Gates visited London last October, he gave an address to the inaugural conference of the Interactive Advertising Bureau and made the claim that 'the future of advertising is the internet'. The claim coincided with the IAB's prediction that online advertising was worth �1bn a year in the UK and had outstripped the markets for both radio and billboards.Gates thinks that the increasing availability of high-quality visual imagery will further the growth of online advertising and that the internet will increasingly provide the best platform for some of the most ambitious and targeted creative ad work. 'You want to grab somebody's attention and great visuals are the way that's done,' he says"

The tangled Web of Social network sites - a challenge to capitalism?

Big biz is so, so hungry to find a way to cash in on the rising stars of the internet, social networks like myspace that articles like this one fail to recognise the internal contradictions within their exhortations to find a way to profit from them. This article advises big biz to find ways to "use" such communities while avoiding exploitation... but surely "use" and "exploit" have the same meaning?

Forrester advises that media companies and marketers will need to become part of the online communities they play to, learn to discreetly use peer relations, avoid exploitation and corporate heavy-handedness, create custom applications, and incorporating existing collaboration tools and technology. Doing that is why Apple's iTunes claims 600 million downloads, 10 million accounts and $400 million in revenue in just two years."

Can a new economic model arise from within the new online communities to challenge the capitalist hegemony? I would love to live to see it.....

The final paragraph really makes me laugh with it's assumption that traditional media are invaluable in their role of educators of the great unwashed general public who would be total ignoramuses without their benevolent guidance....LOL

"What are the implications of creating a world in which consumers are privy only to the customized information, content and services they want, instead of what they need? It is the critical difference between flipping through a newspaper or scanning television newscasts and happening on stories that broaden and sensitize consumers to information they need for their own well-being. That well-rounded, spontaneous knowledge isn't likely from social networks, the reliance on which is sure to create an intellectual vacuum of sorts"

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Washington Post bloggers paid extra, sometimes - MarketWatch

Will this be a test case re whether blogging is mandatory for Post reporters for no extra pay...?

Washington Post bloggers paid extra, sometimes - MarketWatch: "Editors at the Washington Post are wrestling with discontent from reporters who think they should be paid extra for contributing to a group Web log. The Washington City Paper reported staffers on the Post's metro section asked for extra money after learning some prominent byliners were being paid for Web logs while they would not be."

Friday, February 03, 2006

O'Reilly: What Is Web 2.0

Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media introduce the term in 2003 but what does Web 2.0 mean? In his seminal document O'Reilly :O'Reilly: What Is Web 2.0: "What Is Web 2.0 Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software" describes Web 2.0

The scenario: "The bursting of the dot-com bubble in the fall of 2001 marked a turning point for the web. Many people concluded that the web was overhyped, when in fact bubbles and consequent shakeouts appear to be a common feature of all technological revolutions. Shakeouts typically mark the point at which an ascendant technology is ready to take its place at center stage. The pretenders are given the bum's rush, the real success stories show their strength, and there begins to be an understanding of what separates one from the other."

He reckons that after "the crash" "the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. What's more, the companies that had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common. Could it be that the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point for the web, such that a call to action such as "Web 2.0" might make sense? We agreed that it did, and so the Web 2.0 Conference was born."

From initial brainstorming, we formulated our sense of Web 2.0 by example:

Core Competencies of Web 2.0 CompaniesIn exploring the seven principles above, we've highlighted some of the principal features of Web 2.0. Each of the examples we've explored demonstrates one or more of those key principles, but may miss others. Let's close, therefore, by summarizing what we believe to be the core competencies of Web 2.0 companies:

Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them Trusting users as co-developers Harnessing collective intelligence Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service Software above the level of a single device Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

The next time a company claims that it's "Web 2.0," test their features against the list above. The more points they score, the more they are worthy of the name. Remember, though, that excellence in one area may be more telling than some small steps in all seven.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

21 Tips for Better Online Credibility

21 Tips for Better Online Credibility: "One way to increase on the conversion question is to increase credibility. To me it makes sense that if it adds credibility for the user, it's eventually gonna be rolled into an algorithm somewhere as well.

Every tip for credibility by it self may only create marginal benefits, but the sum total of their effects is improved credibility which equates to improved conversion...

1. About page Show your history.2. Pictures of REAL people3. An 800 numberPreferably with someone that actually answers it 4. Contact page with physical address5. Quick responses to customer service requests 6. Confirm transactions or sign ups7. References8. Citations of brilliant people on your site 9. Guest authors10. Site last updated tag11. Go light on the ads12. Please update your homepage.13. Sign up with some credible folks14. Link to good people.15. No 404's18. Speel correctly19. Privacy policy20. Display a contact e-mail prominently.21. Have a freakin' sense of humor

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Transport Direct fiasco

Waste of a nation >> .:thebusinessonline.com:.: "Transport Direct, the �50m public transport journey planner that came out two years behind schedule, and which recommended, among other things, that travellers should wait at station platforms for six hours rather than taking a 40 minute bus ride. In some cases it suggested that you should forget public transport and take the car....

more than £1.5bn has been spent on e-Government websites that do not resolve customer queries, according to research published by software company Transversal. The study shows that 60% of government websites are inefficient at resolving customer queries and 75% of customer-related management projects fail to deliver any measurable return on investment.

One government website – www.ukworldheritage.org.uk – received only 77 hits last year. The total cost of running this and just 10 other linked sites ran to £43m and there are now more than 2,500 government websites."

The first phase of the project, due to be completed by March 2006, will see citywide Wi-Fi hot spots rolled out in Birmingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Oxford, along with the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Camden and Islington....

The initiative has been backed by Derek Wyatt, head of the U.K.'s All Party Internet Group. "Such a large-scale project is an exciting prospect for communications in the U.K., allowing people to send e-mails, make cheap phone calls, surf the Internet, do business and even play games online, wherever they are," Wyatt said. "

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

How Not to Select a Corporate Blogger

suggests (with Suw Charman's help) that companies look for someone passionate, friendly, genuine, interesting, authentic, honest and open with the charisma to connect in the blogosphere. That last skill is hard to find right now.
Richard Edelman - 6 A.M.: His Master's Voice--How Not to Select a Corporate Blogger: "His Master's Voice....suggests (with Suw Charman's help) that companies look for someone passionate, friendly, genuine, interesting, authentic, honest and open with the charisma to connect in the blogosphere...

"I had breakfast in London today with Suw Charmin, a leading blogger in the UK market. We had a very animated discussion about corporate blogging, in particular on who might be the best person to be the lead blogger in a corporation. It may well not be the chief executive officer (present company excepted) and likely not the chief marketing officer (for reasons to be explained shortly). It is more likely a person in the research and development unit or an engineer in the technology or design areas. Whatever job classification, the person or people must be in Suw's words, "passionate, friendly, genuine, interesting, authentic, honest, open."

Thursday, October 27, 2005

eBay TV ad campaign

TV ad campaign to generate online traffic...eBay launches national TV ad campaign | CNET News.com "No matter what holiday product is hot--whether it's the Xbox 360 or iPod Nano--eBay wants people to know it's for sale at eBay, a site better known for hard-to-find collectibles and flea-market sales.

That's the message of eBay's new national TV advertising campaign, which is only the third in the auctioneer's 10-year history and a relative rarity among surviving Web retailers. eBay's ad campaign also stands out at a time when the lines between search engines like Google and online stores like Amazon.com are blurring further, and that melding is heightening rivalries among all of the most trafficked sites."